Dennis Wichern

Who was Ryan Haight?
Ryan Haight was an 18-year-old honor student from La Mesa, California who died on February 12, 2001, from an overdose of hydrocodone ordered from an online doctor he never saw — and shipped to his home from a rogue online pharmacy during the beginning of the opioid epidemic.
The pharmacist, Clayton Fuchs, filled ...

No news is good news.
Especially for hospitals in the middle of the opioid epidemic.
Recently, the University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) agreed to a civil penalty in the amount of $4.3 million for failing to prevent opioid drug diversion and federal recordkeeping violations as a result of a DEA investigation. The headline from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Michigan read: “Eastern District of ...

What is it?
Kratom is a powdered herbal supplement derived from the leaves of a tropical evergreen tree that is native to Southeast Asia and is usually taken orally but can also be brewed into teas.
It is commonly used by consumers as an alternative medicine to self-treat opioid addiction and chronic pain. The leaves contain two compounds, mitragynine and 7-a-hydroxymitragyine, which interact with various receptors in the brain.
At low doses the ...

A lot has been written about Suboxone, the buprenorphine treatment drug. For many, Suboxone acts as an effective medication to treat opioid addiction. For others, it’s a highly-valued street drug that is commonly diverted and misused. To understand and acknowledge the darker side of Suboxone we have to look back at its history over the past 16 years.
History of Suboxone
Suboxone was first approved by the FDA in 2002 to treat ...

According to Bloomberg, Americans spend more on prescription drugs per year than any other country in the world at around $1,100 per person.
Additionally, the CDC reports that four out of five new heroin users started their addiction by using prescription opioid painkillers like hydrocodone or oxycodone.
And we know from the Partnership for a Drug-free America that ...

42,000. That’s the number of CDC reported overdose deaths in 2016 due to opioids.
Ten percent. That’s the percentage of the estimated 2.1 million opioid substance abusers receiving treatment help and even fewer afforded medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for their struggles.
Three percent or around 40,000. That’s the number of physicians out of a total of 1.3 million across the U.S. qualified by ...